There remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. 3 So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? 4 Provide three men from each tribe, and I will send them out that they may set out and go up and down the land. They shall write a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me. 5 They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall continue in his territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall continue in their territory on the north. 6 And you shall describe the land in seven divisions and bring the description here to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God.7 The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their heritage. And Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.”
Verses 2-7 of chapter 18 take us in a different direction, namely, that there is within the people of God a true and genuine concern for the body of Christ as a whole. The people of God are in separate tribes, they have their own lands and yet they are to see themselves as a unity and that demands action on behalf of their brethren. There were still seven tribes that had not received their inheritance, and this was a concern to Joshua and should be a concern to all of God’s people.
It is said that at the end of the Apostle John’s life, his disciples would have to carry the aged apostle to worship and all he would say is, “Brothers love one another…for if you do that, you do enough.” He became known as the apostle of love and we see that in his epistles. John will tell us that if we do not love one another, then we do not have God as our Father.
I remember going to church on vacation a few years ago. To be candid, the singing was quite poor. The selection of what was sung was even worse. The flow of the service made little sense and it was evident that there was not much thought given to the liturgy. The theology that backed the service was lacking and the sermon indicated a lack of study and preparation. It was very easy for me to sit there and to be critical and to be snide…and to deny everything that MY theology and my worship are designed to teach me.
Yes, much was lacking…but as I looked around, I saw brothers and sisters. I was in the company of those who profess faith and hope in Jesus. They were Christians, worshipping in a Christian church, the way they knew. They love the Savior as do I, and they are my family. It was not “them and me”, it was us. The fact is, there are many such churches and many Christians many brothers and sisters who call such places Shiloh.
We must never allow ourselves to think that we are the elite of God instead of the servants of God…that we are anything but beggars who have been brought by grace to the feast, sinners, awful sinners, saved by the grace and mercy of our God.
I realize that there is a tension in all of this. There are errors, and even dangerous errors in teaching and practice that we cannot ignore or act as though such things don’t matter or don’t do damage in the long run and now where are these problems encountered more than they are in what is being done in the name of worship. I am not suggesting that we must not and cannot point it out and identify it correctly and even, at times, to do so with conviction.
But there is a way to do this, there is an attitude that is not an option for any who think to do so, as Paul told the Galatians: “…you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”
Or as we read in 2 Timothy, we are not to be quarrelsome but kind, patient and correcting with gentleness. And according to the next verse there must be some serious error, for then Paul writes, “correcting with gentleness so that God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the truth and that they might come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.” Obviously this is very serious…this person needs to come to their senses, they have been caught in the snare of Satan and are doing HIS will instead of God’s…so we are obviously not talking about whether you dunk or pour! This is very serious and still the call is to not be quarrelsome and to be gentle and kind!
In our text, Joshua wants the people of God to be concerned for the seven tribes which do not have their land yet and to take up a concern for their brethren because that is the covenant’s way…to not rest until the church as a whole, rests…to see your brother’s lack as your lack. Is that the way we think?
Think about what we read in the Bible about God’s love for us: “This is how we know love: he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the sacrifice that would atone for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). “The son of God . . . loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). “This is how God demonstrates his own love for us: the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5:8).
Listen to this contemporary author: With that love, revealed in that way, we begin to see what was going on in Jesus’s public career. He healed people suffering from all kinds of diseases and ailments. He fed the hungry in ways nobody could quite figure out at the time. He celebrated the arrival of God’s kingdom with people of every type, especially the disreputable. This was the work of new creation. This was what God becoming king looked like, up close and personal. There’s no point (in our) making grand statements or gestures if they don’t become real in our actual lives. Jesus went about making it real…” (NT Wright)
What God has done in Jesus and what he will do at the end are united and held together in this: that He is the God of utter, generous love and we are to both live IN that love and to reflect it as well!
Verse 3 of chapter 18 sets forth another concern of Joshua: “Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?” Brothers and sisters, do you see the danger? Here God has brought them into the land…brought them to Shiloh and all that this would have meant to worship, now, in the land. And yet, how quickly there comes this damnable spirit of listlessness. And the form of the verb that is used means that this listless, uncaring, apathetic attitude and heart was continuing…it wasn’t a one-time thing but was a formative practice, more and more becoming characteristic of the people.
In chapter one, verse 5 the Lord told Joshua that he would never leave him, literally he says, “I will never let go of you…I will never drop you…” The same word is used here in verse 3. Israel is in danger of letting go, of dropping the call to possess the gift of God. The land was subdued, but it was not thoroughly possessed, they had to press on and continue doing what they had begun, trusting the Lord to finish that which He had begun.
It is concerning to me, how quickly we can become characterized by apathy. It is concerning, how many Christians seem to be characterized by this spirit having dropped God’s promises, they have let go of their calling as if we are NOT called to perseverance. It is even more alarming to realize how closely this temptation sits to me.
We easily become satisfied with so little. We act often as though the promises of God are sedatives…But God’s promises are not sedatives, they are stimulants! (Davis)
Prayer: Father, I have barely begun to scratch the surface of loving the way I have been loved by You. Give me a sight of what is unseen so as to cause the love You have put in my heart to become aflame, demonstrated in my love for others. And please Lord, keep me from apathy and just going through the motions! Give me a holy zeal that embraces the life of love, the life of my King and Savior, in Jesus name, Amen.
Song: We are One in the Spirit